Tilting door assembly



' July 22, 195 2" v. ROBINSON 2,603,842

V TILTING DOOR, ASSEMBLY Filedoct. 19. 1946' 2 SHEETS-Sl-IEE'I 1 I INVENTOR.

10mm 1/ Roe/ V J 22, 1952 L. v. ROBINSON 2,603,842

TIL-TING DOOR ASSEMBLY Filed Oct. 19, 1946 I 2 mum-swam 2 N INVENTOR.

I awaz (Bel/v50 This invention relates :ated by a spring-impelled toggle mechanism to Patented July 22, 1952 'rii rnsIG-DooalasfsEMB Y I V I i ,Lowell1V. Ii-obinsom Detroit, Mich, assignor to Crawford Door Company, Detroit, Mich., a cor elat n f.M n;, Ap icati n October 19, isia-seriaim.704,414

"aSpecifically the invention deals with .a tilting to a. door assembly actugarage door pivotally suspended at its upper cor-.

hers" and. counterbalanced by spring-impelled toggle arms.

' member, such as a door, is swingably suspended Figure 1 illustrating the door in opened position.

Figure 3 is a fragmentary cross-sectional view,

,with parts in elevation, and parts brokenaway,

taken along the line IlI-III of Figure 1.

- Figure 4 is a fragmentary enlarged view, with .parts in vertical cross section,,of thertoggle arm arrangement for the door assembly.

onhorizontally aligned pivots at the top'portion. I

' of the closure. .Pivoted-together toggle arms are Jrespectively .pivotedto the closure and to fixed pivotsspaced beneath the horizontally aligned 'pivots.:- Tension springs aremounted between the horizontally aligned pivots andthe. pivotal" r connections between the arms. -These springs urge the arm pivots toward the horizontally aligned closure suspension pivots to thereby swing the arms into open position and move the closure-from a vertical closed position to a horizontal open position. In the open position, the closure can extend outwardly from a doorway or other opening closed-thereby to forma canopy for the opening.

Ii While the invention will hereinafter be specifically described as embodiedin a tilting garage door assembly, it should be understood that the principles of the invention are generally applicable to closures of any nature, and the inventionis, therefore, not limited for use with garage It is anobject of the'invention to provide a tilting :door construction actuated by spring-impelled toggles. l

' Another object of the invention is to provide a tiltingdoor assemblyhaving door jamb-carried horizontally aligned pivots for the upper corners of the door together with spring-impelled toggle arms operating between the door jambs and the door.

Another object of the invention is to provide a tilting garage door which is counterbalanced by means of pivotally connected arms carried ,respectively on pivots by the door jambs-and the f InFiguresl and 2, the reference numeral Figure 5 is a horizontal cross-sectional vie taken along the, line ,V V of Figure 1. As shown on the drawings: l0 designatesgenerally a door assembly having ;a doorway Ii defined by side door jambs; [,2, I2, a topflintel i3,gand abottom floor M. ,This doorway H is closed by a door l5. The door I5 can be .of any desiredone-piece construction. The illustrated, door is composed of a sheet [6 of aluminum having longitudinally extending rigidifying beads iBaemb-ossed therein. 'Z-beams I1, I! aresecured to the inner face of the door at the side edges thereof to provide end stiles. As shown in Figure ,5, the Z-beam has a flange Ila extending outwardly from the web lib, thereof which definesthe side edge of the door. These flanges .i'ia are arranged to thrust against the door jambs 1-2, !2 carried -by,the vdoor casings .l 8.

.Similar Z-beams i9 andifi are secured -:onthe Brackets 22 are riveted to the inner faces of the door 15 at the upper corners thereof, preferably .on the Z-beams i1 and I 9. These brackets 22 have flanges22a normal to the plane of the door asshown. Brackets 23 are secured to the inner faces of the door jambs l2 and have flanges 23d extending inwardly from the jambs; f Pivot pins 24 extend through flanges 23a of lithe brackets 23 into the doorway H and project through flanges 22a of the brackets 22. These pivot pins 24 tiltably,supportthedoor in the doorway for swinging movement from the closed vertical position of Figure ltothe open horizontalv position of Figure 2. In. the open position, the door l5 provides a canopy extending forwardly'or outwardly from the doorway Ii.

Brackets 25 are secured on the inner faces of the door jambs l2 in spaced relation beneath the brackets 23. These brackets 25 have inturned flanges 25a extending inwardly from the doorway II. A toggle arm 25 is pivoted on each flange 25a through a headed pivot pin 21. The toggle arm 26, as shown, has an offset portion 26a extending laterally of the door jambs l2 to lie in overlapping relationship to the side edge of the door.

Additional brackets 28 are secured to the inner face of the door adjacent the brackets 25 when the door is closed. These brackets 28 areriveted to the stile beams I1 and to horizontal beams 29 extending from the stile beams to the intermediate beams 2|. The brackets 28 have a pair of inwardly extending ears or flanges 28a best shown in Figure 4. Arms 30 and 3| are respectively pivoted to these ears 2811. by means of headed pivot pins 32. The arms 30 and 3| are in spaced relationship and provide the second link of the toggle linkage.

A fitting 33 is disposed between the arms 36 and 3| at the free ends thereof, and a pin 34 extends through all three arms 26,. 36, and 3|, with the portion 26a of the arm 26 lying between the arms 30 and 3|. The arm portion 26a projects beyond the pin 34 as shown and has an outturned flange or bent portion 26b on the free end thereof.

r The pivot pin 34 extends through the fitting 33 and this fitting is swingable relative to the arms carrying the pin. The fitting has a spring retainer portion 33a between the arms 30 and 3| and a tension spring 35 has several of the end coils thereof fixedly engaged by the retainer portion 330.. This retainer can extend into several end coils of the spring and grip the coils as shown. The spring 35 has a bail type retainer 7 36 on the other end thereof. This retainer 36 is disposed over the pivot pin 24 inwardly of the' bracket flange 22a and has swinging engagement therewith.

It will be appreciated, of course, that a toggle arm assembly composed of arms 30 and 3| pivoted on the door brackets 28, and an arm 26 pivoted on the door jamb brackets 25, together with a'tension spring engaged between the fitting 33 and the pivot pin 24 is provided for each side The edge of the door as shown in Figure 1. springs 35 tend to pull the fittings 33 toward the pivots 24 thereby tending to spread the arm pivots 2'! and 32 to open the arms and door to the position shown in Figure 2. In this position, the flange 26b of the arm 26 will strike against the adjacent arm 3| to prevent further movement of 'tings, are effective to pull the door to its fully closed position as shown in Figure 3.

Dead center, or alignment of the fittings 33 with the pivots 21 and 32 so that spring action is directly against the pivots, occurs just before the door reaches closed position. However, when the door isswung manually outward beyond its dead center position, so that the fittings 33 are outwardly of the pivots 2'|, then the springs will become effective to swing the arms for opening the door.

Tension on the springs can be adjusted as desired by seating the retainers 33a and 36 at the desired spring coil, so that the door will be overbalanced by the springs as soon as it is manually swung to move the fittings 33 out of dead center positions relative to the arm pivots and thedoor pivots 24.

In order to prevent-the 'arms from swinging too far inwardly from the inner face of the door when it is in closed position, a stop pin 31 is provided 0n the flange 25a of each bracket 25 to limit inward movement of the arms 26. This pin 31 effectively prevents inward swinging of'the arms away from the inner face of the door when it is in closed position.

From the above descriptions it will be understood that the invention provides a closure construction wherein a door or other closure member is tiltably suspended on fixed pivots and is counterbalanced by spring-impelled toggles. These toggles have first arms pivoted to side jambs for the closure and second arms pivoted to the closure beneath the suspension pivots. The arms are pivoted together and springs under tension between the closure pivots, and the pivotsconnecting the arms tend to spread the arms apart, thereby moving the closure from a. closed vertical position to an open horizontal position. The pivots connecting the arms with each other and with the side jambs and door are on dead center relative to the direction of spring pull just before the door is fully closed, so that the tension spring will pull the door to'closed position on one side of dead center and to open position on the other side of dead center.

It will, of course, be understood that various details of construction may be varied through a wide range without departing from the principles of this invention and it is, therefore, not the purpose to limit the patent granted hereon otherwise than necessitated by the scope of the appended claim. e

e I claim as my invention:

In a tilting door assembly including means defining a doorway, a door for closing the doorway and means includingat least one hinge pin foritiltably supporting the door in the doorway, a first toggle arm pivoted to the door, a second toggle arm pivoted to the doorway-defining means, one of said arms being bifurcated to-provide two spaced portions, a transverse pivot pin between said portions, the other of said arms being pivoted to said pivot pin, and a spring connected at one end to the hinge pin andat'the other end to said pivot pin.

I I L WELLV. ROBINSON.

I I REFERENCES CITED I The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS .7

Number I Name I I I Date 1,345,261 Sellek' June 29, 1920 2,162,381 Guth I June 13,1939 2,220,766

Hubbs Nov. 5 i940 

